ThePerfectionist

One of the things that really bugged me last year (as a first year MBA) was when people said, "Once you get in the real world, you will have to..." As a student with five years of experience in "the real world" I found that more than mildly patronizing. It was like they were saying, I had never worked a job or gone on an interview or made a professional presentation or (and this one really bugged me) dressed business professional. 

So when I found myself the other day, saying it to a first year it made me stop and think about what I was really trying to say. Why is it that we don't think of b-school as the real world or even the experiences before b-school? It might be because we hang out every day with 200 of our closest friends, all with the same goals, learning the same stuff, going to the same bars, experiencing the same life (for the most part). We are cocooned in this beautiful new building, with professors and staff that want to see us succeed. That's a pretty nice life, but it's true, it is not the real world.

At Mason, we have a group of dedicated fantasy-land busters, more formally called Executive Partners (EPs). These men and women are retired or semi-retired executives that live in Williamsburg and volunteer their time to be our coaches. They usually retired as a vice-president or higher level and together have experiences in every major industry and career field. Every incoming MBA student is given a coach that roughly matches their past or desired future experiences. They meet with their EPs about personal, professional, and leadership development. It sounds cheesy, but they hold our hand when we had a rough team meeting, or didn't do well on a test; they cheer with us when we do well our interviews; they challenge us when we are not living up to our potential or our commitments. Most importantly they slowly but surely burst our inflated ego bubbles when they get too big. While, you are given one to start out with, most of us leave with 3-5 mentors/coaches. I personally have 4 EPs that I speak to regularly (1 of which is my official coach). Just as an example of what these EPs do: I was talking to one of my EPs the other day about my resume and he asked "why should I hire you?" I listed off some skills and personality traits. He shot back, "I'll be honest, every one of these MBAs has those skills and traits, so what is it about you that makes you different and value add?" He didn't give me the answer, rather he sent me off to figure it out and come back to him.

These EPs are not all alumni, in fact most of them received their MBAs from much larger and more well-known schools. The EPs are truly unique to Mason. As far as I know no other program has this kind of personalized, regular and meaningful interaction with senior executives. The EPs bring the real world into the Mason School. They help us realize that while we may have worked before, the kind of work and experiences we will have after our MBA will be very different from what we did before. Expectations will be higher and the EPs prepare us to exceed them.